EPA considering NJ Hackensack River for cleanup plan

Today, Hackensack Riverkeeper formally petitioned the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to study whether the main stem of the Hackensack River should be listed under the federal Superfund law. The drastic action was taken on behalf of the tidal reaches of river that stretch for twenty-two miles from Van Buskirk Island in Oradell, NJ to the river’s terminus at Newark Bay. Bottom sediments throughout that area are contaminated with a long list of toxic chemicals and heavy metals. 

For over two hundred years industrial interests used the Hackensack River as a convenient dumping ground. As a result, there are five current Superfund sites on the river or its tributaries, and literally hundreds of sites within its watershed (drainage basin) that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) lists as “Known Contaminated Sites.” In DEP’s list of state waters unsafe or fishing or swimming, the Hackensack is cited as unacceptably contaminated with toxins including DDT, PCBs, Dioxin, Chromium, Copper, and Mercury among other pollutants.

Today's post is shared from northjersey.com/

In an acknowledgment that the Hackensack River remains seriously polluted with a century of industrial waste, the federal government will consider adding the river to the federal Superfund list, a program reserved for the country’s most contaminated sites. Nearby Superfund sites Numerous Superfund sites as well as other contaminated sites — all former industrial facilities — have likely contributed to the contamination in the Hackensack River. The Superfund sites are: The 40-acre Ventron/Velsicol site in Wood-Ridge had an old processing plant where mercury was removed from discarded lab equipment, batteries and other devices. Mercury levels on the site were more than 128 times higher than the state threshold for non-residential cleanups. The cleanup involved carting more than 40,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil to a hazardous waste facility in Canada.   The 74-acre Universal Oil site in East Rutherford had PCB levels as high as 5,810 parts per million — the state’s soil cleanup standard for PCBs is one part per million. The site cleanup involved removing 950,000 gallons of contaminated water from a lagoon and 6,600 cubic yards of soil. Other soil contaminated with PCBs and lead was capped.   The 6-acre Scientific Chemical Processing site...

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Read more about NJ Hackensack River pollution:

Workers' Compensation: Cancer Alley: NJ Meadowlands to ...

May 24, 2013

The area around the NJ Turnpike has long been called "Cancer Alley," the the US EPA is now going to investigate past dumping of cancer causing substances in the New Jersey Meadowlands near the Hackensack River.

Contractor to Remove PCB From Park in Bogota NJ

Nov 08, 2013

The site, which is in the New Jersey Meadowlands and is next to the Hackensack River, is contaminated with a number of hazardous chemicals including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxin. The study of the nature .

Workers' Compensation: Contaminated Soil and Debris to ...

Aug 20, 2013

The site, which is in the New Jersey Meadowlands and is next to the Hackensack River, is contaminated with a number of hazardous chemicals including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxin. The study of the nature .

EPA Finalizes List of Polluted Water Bodies in New Jersey

Oct 30, 2014

From Raritan Bay to the Maurice River in Cumberland County, New Jersey continues to struggle with meeting federal water standards. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved the 2012 list ... A complete list of New Jersey's impaired waters, including the Hackensack River, the Passaic River, and Lake Hopatcong is available at:http://www.state.nj.us/dep/wms/bwqsa/2012_draft_303d_list.pdf

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Smoking: The under-estimated contributing factor

Smoking and occupational illness is a compounding factor in workers' compensation claims and that a study reports is also underestimated. A study funded by the American Cancer Society and published in the New England Journal of Medicine this week reveals.

"Mortality among current smokers is 2 to 3 times as high as that among persons who never smoked. Most of this excess mortality is believed to be explained by 21 common diseases that have been formally established as caused by cigarette smoking and are included in official estimates of smoking-attributable mortality in the United States. However, if smoking causes additional diseases, these official estimates may significantly underestimate the number of deaths attributable to smoking."

"During the follow-up period, there were 181,377 deaths, including 16,475 among current smokers. Overall, approximately 17% of the excess mortality among current smokers was due to associations with causes that are not currently established as attributable to smoking. These included associations between current smoking and deaths from renal failure (relative risk, 2.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.7 to 2.3), intestinal ischemia (relative risk, 6.0; 95% CI, 4.5 to 8.1), hypertensive heart disease (relative risk, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.9 to 3.0), infections (relative risk, 2.3; 95% CI, 2.0 to 2.7), various respiratory diseases (relative risk, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.6 to 2.4), breast cancer (relative risk, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.2 to 1.5), and prostate cancer (relative risk, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.2 to 1.7). Among former smokers, the relative risk for each of these outcomes declined as the number of years since quitting increased."

Historically, occupational exposure to tobacco smoke has been recognized as a compensable condition. An Atlantic City NJ casino card dealer employed at the Claridge Hotel who was exposed to second hand tobacco smoke was awarded workers' compensation benefits. NJ Judge Cosmo Giovinazzi award $150,00 for lost wages and medical benefits to a card dealer holding that second-hand tobacco smoke materially contributed to the employee's lung cancer.

Smoking and Mortality — Beyond Established Causes

Brian D. Carter, M.P.H., Christian C. Abnet, Ph.D., Diane Feskanich, Sc.D., Neal D. Freedman, Ph.D., Patricia Hartge, Sc.D., Cora E. Lewis, M.D., Judith K. Ockene, Ph.D., Ross L. Prentice, Ph.D., Frank E. Speizer, M.D., Michael J. Thun, M.D., and Eric J. Jacobs, Ph.D.
N Engl J Med 2015; 372:631-640 February 12, 2015 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa1407211

….

Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

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Why Judges Tilt to the Right

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON — LAWYERS on average are much more liberal than the general population, a new study has found. But judges are more conservative than the average lawyer, to say nothing of the graduates of top law schools.

What accounts for the gap? The answer, the study says, is that judicial selection processes are affected by politics.

Judges are, of course, almost without exception lawyers. If judges reflected the pool from which they were selected based on politically neutral grounds like technical skill and temperament, the bench might be expected to tilt left.

But something else is going on.

“Politics plays a really significant role in shaping our judicial system,” said Maya Sen, a political scientist at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and one of the authors of the study. Since judges tend to be more conservative than lawyers, she said, it stands to reason that the officials who appoint judges and the voters who elect them are taking account of ideology. She said the phenomenon amounted to a politicization of the courts, driven largely by conservatives’ swimming against the political tide of the legal profession.

Eric A. Posner, a law professor at the University of Chicago, said the paper might have drawn the wrong conclusion from the right data. “The authors argue that a court is politicized if the judges deviate from the ideology of the underlying ideological distribution of attorneys,” he said. “Maybe.”

But an...


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NJ Workers' Compensation Director to Retire: Judge Russell Wojtenko Successor

Peter J. Calderone,
Director & Chief Judge of
NJ Division of Workers' Compensation

NJ Workers Compensation Director & Chief Judge Peter Calderone announced that he will retire March 1, 2015. It was also announced that NJ Labor Commissioner Wirths will appoint Judge Russell Wojtenko as the new Director & Chief Judge of the NJ Division of Workers' Compensation.


Under the leadership of Judge Calderone the NJ Division of Workers' Compensation vastly expanded the electronic docket and filing system. The process increased greater transparency of the docket system and achieved greater efficiency.

Faced with many critical issues during his tenure, Judge Calderone implemented a Task Force approach to seek a consensus of stakeholders.  The approach achieved balanced and fair administrative and judicial resolution of those issues under his leadership.

Judge Calderone distributed the following announcement:

"As you may be aware, I plan to retire on March 1, 2015. I believe it is the right time for me and the Division of Workers’ Compensation. With an excellent corps of judges, administrators and court personnel along with the support of our Commissioner, the workers’ compensation attorneys, business groups, labor organizations, CRIB, our Advisory Council and others, we have accomplished our objective of developing and maintaining a successful and superior workers’ compensation system. While we should continue to upgrade our technology and other programs, we have been fortunate to have developed, among other improvements, a remarkable case management operation, an extensive website and updated court rules and policies to assist our staff and case parties. Our goal has been to provide the tools to make everyone successful and by doing that make the workers’ compensation system successful for the citizens of this State. On a personal note, after over 39 years of State service, being in good health, with a wonderful family and earned State employee benefits, I look forward to a reduced pace and my next phase.

"I am also pleased that Commissioner Wirths has selected Supervising Judge Russell Wojtenko as Director and Chief Judge upon my retirement. Judge Wojtenko is a dedicated jurist and outstanding Supervising Judge. The Division will be well served under his leadership.

How to raise the minimum wage 107 percent without losing jobs or profit

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.pbs.org

A new study shows that the fast-food industry can pay a $15
minimum wage without cutting jobs or profit rates. Photo by Flickr user Xiaozhuli.

Boosting the federal minimum wage would be great news for the workers who’d receive a higher paycheck. Not so much for those who’d be out of a job. That anxiety sums up much of the debate around increasing the minimum wage.

Fueling angst on the right, the Congressional Budget Office reported last year that raising the federal minimum to $10.10 would cost about 500,000 jobs. Even liberal restaurant owners, like the ones NewsHour’s Paul Solman spoke to in Seattle last spring, worried that paying their workers more would doom their businesses, while nonprofit organizations feared having to cut their staff and services.

Nearly half of all workers toiling at or below the minimum wage work in food preparation and service. The National Restaurant Association’s 2014 analysis of raising the wage to $10.10 concluded that tens of thousands of jobs would be lost across specific states.

If CEO compensation in the fast-food industry is any indication, the major fast-food companies could afford to pay low-wage workers more. In 2012, CEOs received 1,200 times what the average worker was paid, according to the Demos Institute. Right now, the assumption is that paying low-wage workers a higher wage would come at a cost. But what if the industry could pay workers more without cutting jobs? And more important...


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An Update on Florida's Constitutional Challenges to Workers' Copensation

Recent litigation in Florida has raised much interest in some very high profile constitutional challenges to the workers' compensation system. In a recent blog post, David Langham, Deputy Chief Judge of Compensation Claims for the Florida Office of Judges of Compensation Claims and Division of Administrative Hearings provides an analysis of recent developments. Today's post is shared from http://flojcc.blogspot.com/

A Florida Constitutional Update

It happened again yesterday. An observer from several hundred miles away wrote to me about what has become known as "Padgett." Padgett has a lot of names, officially it isFlorida Workers Advocates v. Florida, but much of the country seemingly just calls it "that constitutionality case down in

David Langham is the Deputy Chief
Judge of Compensation Claims for the Florida Office
 of Judges of Compensation Claims
 and Division of Administrative Hearings

Miami."

There is much happening in Florida workers' compensation right now. I hear a fair amount about it from around the country. Before D-day, Dwight Eisenhower told his troops "the eyes of the world are upon you." This is not of that magnitude, but it is apparent that the eyes of the workers' compensation world are upon Florida.

This spring may bring distractions. There is the legislative proposal on drug and alcohol in New Mexico accidents. There is the discussion of an "Oklahoma Opt-Out" in Tennessee's legislative agenda. There are drug formulary proposals, treatment guideline proposals,Marijuana questions, and even immigration issues. One has no trouble finding "hot topics" in workers' compensation this year.

But, the inquiries keep coming on Padgett/Florida Workers' Advocates v. Florida. It is Florida Circuit Court decision out of Miami. Many people I run into across the country do not appreciate the magnitude of Miami. Nineteen and a half million people live in Florida, we are the third most populous state behind California and Texas. Over two and half million of those Floridians live in Dade County, in which Miami is located. Dade county is more populous than fifteen of the United States.

In Florida, our general jurisdiction trial courts are called Circuit Courts. There are twenty Circuits, most containing multiple counties. But Dade is the only county in the Eleventh Circuit. Other single county Circuits include Hillsborough/Tampa, Palm Beach/West Palm Beach, Broward/Ft. Lauderdale, and Monroe/the Florida Keys.

OSHA finds welders unaware of toxic, explosive fumes

Blast kills temporary worker, critically injures another 4 companies violate safety laws at Omega Protein plant


MOSS POINT, Miss. — Two temporary workers hired to cut and weld pipes at the Omega Protein plant in Moss Point on July 28, 2014, had no idea and had no training to know that the storage tank beneath them contained explosive methane and hydrogen sulfide gases. One of the two men found out later as he lay in a hospital with a fractured skull, internal injuries and broken bones. The second, a 25-year-old man named Jerry Taylor, died when the tank exploded.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated the incident and has found four companies violated safety regulations that could have prevented the tragedy. The companies are Accu-Fab & Construction Inc., Omega Protein, and JP Williams Machine & Fabrication, all in Moss Point, and Global Employment, in Pascagoula.

Accu-Fab, a metal fabricator, was contracted by Omega Protein to manufacture and erect a wastewater storage tank that required modification of existing pipes. A staffing agency, Global Employment Services, provided Accu-Fab with the employees needed at Omega. JP Williams Machine, which provides industrial service and repair, was on-site the day of the explosion performing unrelated maintenance activities.

"The Omega Protein plant explosion shines a spotlight on how critical it is for employers to verify, isolate and remove fire and explosion hazards in employee work areas," said Eugene Stewart, OSHA's area director in Jackson. "If the employer ensured a safe environment, this tragic incident could have been prevented."



Omega Protein plant in Moss Point, Mississippi.

OSHA issued 13 citations to Omega Protein, a producer of omega-3 fish oil and specialty fish meal products, for willful, repeated and serious safety violations. OSHA issued a willful citation for exposing employees to fire and explosion hazards due to Omega management's failure to inform Accu-Fab that the storage tank contained wastewater that could generate hydrogen sulfide andmethane gases, which can be highly explosive and toxic, even at low concentrations. The repeated violations involve not having standard railings on open-sided floors and platforms and failing to label electrical boxes properly.

Wal-Mart sued in Georgia over wrong prescription

Today's post is shared from Westlaw Journal Professional Liability.

A pharmacist at a Wal-Mart store in Georgia filled a man’s prescription for blood pressure medication incorrectly, causing him to develop kidney failure, according to a state court lawsuit.

Plaintiff Harold Williams, who also worked at Wal-Mart, says the company fired him while he was sick from the taking the wrong medication.

(

Williams says he went to a Wal-Mart pharmacy in Roswell, Ga., in January 2013 to get a prescription for 25 milligrams of hydralazine, a blood pressure medication.

The unidentified pharmacist who filled the prescription gave him 25-milligram tablets of hydrochlorothiazide, a diuretic used to treat fluid retention, the suit says.

(Click here to read the complaint on WestlawNext.)

Williams says that because of the error, he took doses of the wrong medication and later was diagnosed with acute renal failure and hospitalized.

He seeks to hold the pharmacist liable for negligence and malpractice. The suit also says Wal-Mart failed to properly hire, train, retain and supervise its pharmacist and other employees.

The complaint seeks compensatory damages from the defendants for past and future medical bills, past and future lost income, and past and future pain and suffering. It also requests punitive damages solely against Wal-Mart for allegedly firing Williams.

Williams v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. et al., No. 15-EV-000040, complaint filed (Ga. State Ct.,...


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Feds investigating explosion that injured 3 at AGL Welding Supply in Clifton

Today's post is shared from northjersey.com

Firefighters work at the scene of an explosion at a welding company in Clifton.
 tariq zehawi/staff photographer 

A Paterson man was severely burned and another worker was injured at a Route 46 supply store when oxygen they were using to fill cylinders inexplicably exploded Friday morning, fire Chief Vincent Colavitti Jr. said.

Roberto Silva, 45, has been taken to St. Barnabas Medical center and it appeared Friday afternoon that he would survive, Colavitti said. The other worker, who suffered from minor smoke inhalation, and a truck driver working nearby who also was shaken up by the force of the explosion were treated and released.

The 7 a.m. explosion at the AGL Welding Supply Co. at 600 Route 46 also ignited a fire that went to three alarms and prompted shutdowns of both vehicular and mass transit traffic in the immediate area.

The fire was declared under control at 8 a.m. But the chief said the three alarms had been needed in summoning enough staffing to deal with bitter cold conditions. The fire also had been contained by the building’s sprinkler system until firefighters arrived.

With oxygen still leaking from the storage tank after the explosion, Route 46 near the plant was shut down in both directions, as was Exit 154 of the Garden State Parkway northbound. Also, nearby trains were halted because of the possibility of additional explosions, Colavitti said. Firefighters were able to shut off the...


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Overturning Obamacare Would Change the Nature of the Supreme Court

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nytimes.com

In the first Affordable Care Act case three years ago, the Supreme Court had to decide whether Congress had the power, under the Commerce Clause or some other source of authority, to require individuals to buy health insurance. It was a question that went directly to the structure of American government and the allocation of power within the federal system.

The court very nearly got the answer wrong with an exceedingly narrow reading of Congress’s commerce power. As everyone remembers, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., himself a member of the anti-Commerce Clause five, saved the day by declaring that the penalty for not complying with the individual mandate was actually a tax, properly imposed under Congress’s tax power.

I thought the court was seriously misguided in denying Congress the power under the Commerce Clause to intervene in a sector of the economy that accounts for more than 17 percent of the gross national product. But even I have to concede that the debate over structure has deep roots in the country’s history and a legitimate claim on the Supreme Court’s attention. People will be debating it as long as the flag waves.




But the new Affordable Care Act case, King v. Burwell, to be argued four weeks from now, is different, a case of statutory, not constitutional, interpretation. The court has permitted itself to be recruited into the front lines of a partisan war. Not only the Affordable Care Act but the court itself is in...

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Most Americans Support Paid Sick Days, Parental Leave

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.huffingtonpost.com

A majority of Americans think employers should be required to pay for sick leave and time off for new parents, according to a HuffPost/YouGov poll.

Seventy percent say companies should be compelled to offer paid sick leave to employees, while 67 percent favor paid maternity leave, and 55 percent support paid paternity leave, the poll found.

About 40 percent of private-sector workers, many in lower-wage industries, aren't guaranteed paid sick days, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. President Barack Obama has urged employers to offer the benefits voluntarily and has asked Congress and state legislatures to pass legislation requiring paid leave.

Lawmakers' opinions on the benefits diverge largely on partisan lines. Americans in general, however, are more supportive.

The poll found a majority of Republicans and Democrats support requiring paid sick leave, although Democrats are 31 percentage points more likely to do so. There were similar partisan gaps on maternity leave and paternity leave.



Women are 14 percentage points more likely to support paid sick leave than men, 15 points more likely to support maternity leave, and 9 points more likely to back paternity leave. Those with children under age 18 are slightly more likely than those without kids to back all three policies.

The divide in opinion on sick leave and maternity leave has remained relatively unchanged since HuffPost last asked about the issue in June 2013. Paternity leave,...

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Investigation Underway in Metro-North Train Crash

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nytimes.com



When a crowded commuter train slammed into a car on the tracks on Tuesday night, it dislodged the electrified third rail, which, combined with gasoline from the vehicle, created a deadly inferno, federal investigators said at a news conference Wednesday evening.

“The entire interior of the first rail car was burned out,” said Robert L. Sumwalt, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board.

The result was the most deadly accident in the history of the Metro-North Railroad, with six people killed and more than a dozen injured after the collision in Valhalla, in Westchester County.

Even as investigators worked to understand why a car became stranded on the tracks, Mr. Sumwalt offered some explanation for why the accident was so deadly.

He said the train plowed the car 1,000 feet down the tracks and, as it went along, tore up 400 feet of electrified rail.

That rail, he said, first penetrated the car “behind and below the driver’s seat” and exited the car by the right rear tire. It then pierced the train, breaking up in 80-foot segments. At least one of those segments penetrated the second rail car.

But he said many questions remained unanswered. Specifically, he said, in these types of accidents, train passengers are rarely killed.

“Usually it is not endangering the occupants of the train,” he said. “We intend to find out what makes this accident different.”

Mr. Sumwalt said it also remained unclear why the S.U.V. was on...


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GOP Chairmen Offer Alternative To Health Law

Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from kaiserhealthnews.org

Key GOP chairmen from the Senate and House plan to unveil a blueprint Thursday for repealing the health law and replacing it with a proposal the lawmakers said would reduce health care costs, improve quality and expand coverage.

The measure retains many elements of a proposal Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Richard Burr of North Carolina released a year ago with former Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. That proposal did not get traction, but the senators are pushing it again and now are working with House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) .
 (Photo by T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images

“Our plan allows patients to make health care decisions for themselves – without a maze of mandates, fines and taxes,” Hatch, who chairs the Finance panel, said in a press release. “This plan is achievable, and above all, fiscally sustainable.” Burr heads the Select Committee on Intelligence.

With the GOP controlling both houses of Congress this year, Republicans are continuing their fight against the health law. The House voted Tuesday to repeal it, although Republicans are not expected to garner enough votes to override the veto that President Barack Obama has promised if the bill passes Congress. At the same time, Republicans have stepped up their interest in possible alternatives to the health law....


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Blue Cross North Carolina’s Price Tool Could Shake Up Medical Industry

Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from kaiserhealthnews.org

Leslie Goldfarb of Charlotte had been talking to two surgeons about knee surgery and worrying about her out-of-pocket costs.

When she recently read about a new online database from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, she checked the average reimbursement for those surgeons. One of them averaged about $1,500 less in total costs associated with the arthroscopic surgery she’s having. And Blue Cross pays about twice as much if the same doctors do the procedure in a hospital – costs that pass through to her with a high-deductible plan.

She used that data to schedule her surgery.

“You don’t have to legislate medical costs to come down,” Goldfarb said. “All you have to do is make the information available.”

That’s the idea.

Until recently the cost of medical care had been a closely guarded trade secret and patients had little reason to care when health insurance covered most of the expense. Now, however, as patients become responsible for more of their medical costs, such information is seeping out through online tools.

How that will play out in the medical marketplace remains to be seen, but Blue Cross’ North Carolina disclosure is creating national buzz. A recent post on Forbes.com said it could “represent the dawn of a new age in health care.”

“Transparency in general is a good thing,”...

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Medical Debt Still a Problem Under Health Law — Despite Protections

Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from kaiserhealthnews.org

Elizabeth and Britt Harmon struggled for years to have a child, and were thrilled when their son Orin was born in February 2013. But they were unprepared for the medical problems that then upended the Brooksville, Maine couple’s lives.

Orin was born with pulmonary stenosis, a heart condition, and severe asthma. He required constant care, including frequent trips to the hospital and medications that cost hundreds of dollars. The Harmons had insurance through Britt’s job at a plumbing company, but it covered “maybe half” of their child’s medical expenses, Elizabeth said.



Elizabeth Harmon with son, Orin, who is just a few days old in this picture.
They are resting at home between medical appointments. (Photo by Britt Harmon


Then, Britt’s employer dropped insurance as a benefit at the end of 2013; he lost his job in June. The family scrambled to find coverage but went three months without any before qualifying in July for MaineCare, Maine’s Medicaid program for low-income people. By then, the Harmons had accumulated thousands of dollars in medical debt, Elizabeth said. They’re still working — with the help of a local non-profit organization — to pay it off.

“I’ve sold furniture out of my own house to try to pay off some of the bills,” she said. “There were so many bills, it was impossible to keep track of everything.”

The federal health law was intended to keep a surprise illness or...


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Republican Lawmakers Set To Unveil Health Law Replacement Plan

Health care is a known unknown in the future of workers' compensation. If the Scott Walker's Wisconsin plan to dismantle workers' compensation is implemented, will that lead to more uninsured workers, or a merger into a universal health care program? Will it be a step backward to the 1994 Contract With America and the Newt Gingrich plan to eliminate workers' altogether? The debate continues as the 2016 national election cycle continues to frame the issues. Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from kaiserhealthnews.org

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton declined to give details on the plan. Some Republicans are pushing tax credits and deductions for health care, and others are pushing the idea of "portable" health coverage -- the ability to take your insurance from job to job. The Associated Press: GOP Lawmakers Ready A Plan To Replace Obama Health Care Law A Republican House committee chairman says he and two GOP senators are preparing to release a plan for replacing President Barack Obama's health care law. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton declined to discuss details Tuesday, but said the proposal will give Republicans a proposal that they can stand behind. The Michigan Republican said he, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah and Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina will unveil their proposal Thursday. (2/3) The Fiscal Times: New GOP Congress Develops Alternate Health Plans House lawmakers are planning to vote for a 60th time today to repeal the president’s health care law – a vote that’s legislatively pointless but politically symbolic. Many of the 47 GOP freshmen who were elected last November won at least in part because their constituents were anti-Obamacare. (Ehley, 2/3)

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No, Cancer is Not Mostly Bad Luck - The Role of Environmental Factors

Today's post is shared from http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jsass

No, cancer is NOT mostly bad luck. We've set the record straight in Science magazine (Ashford et al, 6 February 2015) after it published an article and accompanying editorial so full of misstatements that scientists around the world, including myself, felt compelled to correct the record with the facts. (See Science 2 January 2015 study by Drs. Tomasetti and Vogelstein and accompanying "bad luck of cancer" editorial by Jennifer Couzin-Frankel, with subsequent "backlash" editorial here).

Our letter to the editor of Science not only challenges the misstatements of the reports that most cancers are due to 'bad luck', but points out that such misstatements dangerously undermine successful efforts to prevent cancers. Many cancers are linked to diet, lifestyle factors, alcohol, tobacco, sexual activity, and environmental factors. There is overwhelming evidence that cancer and other life-threatening diseases can be prevented by improving diet and lifestyle habits, and limiting harmful exposures to environmental factors including some chemicals like formaldehyde and diesel exhaust, asbestos, some viruses, alcohol, radiation, and second hand smoke. People are exposed to carcinogens at work, home, school, and recreation areas. For example, there are cancer-causing chemicals in household products, building materials, personal care products, food and food additives, tobacco products, industrial emissions, and...


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Budget Changes To Medicare, HHS Programs Would Garner $399 Billion In 10 Years

The Obama Administration is making a concerted effort to lower medical costs through budgetary restrictions. It is unknown whether this is really meant to merely reduce service or establish greater efficiency. The CMS program is the model for the majority workers' compensation medical cost schedules. Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from kaiserhealthnews.org

President Barack Obama (Photo credit: Wikipedia) President Barack Obama's budget request includes proposals that would increase spending for some Medicare beneficiaries, including co-payments for new Medicare beneficiaries who receive home health care services and a surcharge on premiums for new beneficiaries who buy private insurance to supplement Medicare. The budget also calls on the federal government to use its buying power to negotiate drug prices. The New York Times: Budget Plan Sees Savings In Changes To Medicare In his new budget, President Obama proposed on Monday to squeeze $399 billion over the next 10 years out of Medicare, Medicaid and other programs run by the Department of Health and Human Services. Under the proposals, many Medicare beneficiaries would have to pay more for their care and coverage. The president would, for example, introduce a co-payment for new Medicare beneficiaries who receive home health care services, and he would collect $4 billion over 10 years by imposing a surcharge on premiums for new beneficiaries who buy generous private insurance to supplement Medicare. (Pear, 2/2) The Wall Street Journal: Obama Health Budget Calls For Authority To Negotiate Drug Prices The Obama administration’s fiscal 2016 budget request calls for allowing the government to negotiate the price of prescription drugs and giving regulators new funding to fight Ebola. The Department of Health and Human Services request proposes a budget authority of about $1.09 trillion for fiscal 2016, up from $1.04...

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Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

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